Category: Maryland

Is the future of transportation coming to Maryland?

High speed inter-city rail transportation in the United States is nearly nonexistent. Amtrak’s Acela Express in the Northeast Corridor, capable of speeds up to 150 mph, averages just 65 mph due to limitations of the existing track. But two proposals for trains using very different technology could radically change the future of transportation in the Northeast Corridor. Here’s an introduction to these game-changing technologies.

Elon Musk to start hyperloop project in Maryland, officials say

by Erin Cox and Sarah Gantz (Baltimore Sun), October 19, 2017

Maryland has given transportation pioneer Elon Musk permission to dig tunnels for the high-speed, underground transit system known as a hyperloop that Musk wants to build between New York and Washington.

Hogan administration officials said Thursday the state has issued a conditional utility permit to let Musk’s tunneling firm, The Boring Co., dig a 10.3-mile tunnel beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, between the Baltimore city line and Maryland 175 in Hanover.

It would be the first portion of the underground system that Musk says could eventually ferry passengers from Washington to New York, with stops in Baltimore and Philadelphia, in just 29 minutes. Maryland’s approval is the first step of many needed to complete the multibillion-dollar project.

Continue reading Is the future of transportation coming to Maryland?

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Get to know some of the Unite the Right rally participants and sympathizers

As a society, racism and the belief in white supremacy is deep in our DNA. It can be said that Christopher Columbus was the father of white supremacy in the Americas. The Civil War hardly extinguished this feature of the American psyche. Most of the monuments to the confederacy were erected in the early 1900s and following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As in the Civil War, the alt-right are our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans. THEY watch the same movies, participate in the same sporting events, go to the same restaurants as WE. They’re part of us.

And President Trump has given legitimacy to their platform. If the main-stream press is fake news, then the reports here must be what the President believes. We can only be a better country if we understand something about this illness that afflicts our body politic.  Here is a glimpse of some of the supporters of the Unite The Right Rally in Charlottsville, Va. on Saturday, August 12th; and an organization at the forefront of monitoring some 1,600 hate and extremist groups operating in this country.

Battle of Charlottesville: A Firsthand Account

by Lee Rogers (Daily Stormer),  August 13, 2017 [ABRIDGED]

I wanted to give everyone my first hand account of what I saw while everything is still fresh. The one thing I will say is that everything I’m seeing reported in the Jewish media about what happened yesterday is a lie. There’s nobody giving an accurate account. All I’ve seen is an endless parade of non-Whites and Jews spewing nonsense. I’ve yet to see a single person on any of the big cable news channels interview a single person from our side.

Here’s what really happened. At around 9 AM many of us began assembling at McIntire Park which is a short distance away from Lee Park. As we walked to [Lee Park] we were confronted by all sorts of degenerates. Continue reading Get to know some of the Unite the Right rally participants and sympathizers

How we got those highway signs with mileage of distant cities

I-70 west, at I-695 in Woodlawn

“Go West, Young Man”
June 04, 2007|By Rob Hiaasen (Baltimore Sun)

. . . . Tom Hicks, a state highway administrator in Maryland, decided to immortalize Cove Fort [the western terminus of I-70, in Utah] in the minds of Marylanders heading west out of Baltimore toward Frederick, Hagerstown and across nine other states connected by I-70. He and another highway man, Paul Farragut of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, got to thinking about a different kind of mileage sign, one with a bit of geographical whimsy and one that, for more practical reasons, would test a new type style. It’s not often an act of traffic engineering captures the imagination of, well, anyone.

“I was just excited that we have an interstate that ends and begins in our region,” says Farragut. He had never been to Cove Fort but was always amused by a sign Continue reading How we got those highway signs with mileage of distant cities

Contact your Local Senator and Delegates to Ban Rolling Coal in Maryland

For the second year in a row, Delegate Clarence Lam (Democrat District 12, Howard/Baltimore County) has introduced a bill (HB-11) to make rolling coal illegal in Maryland. And what is rolling coal?   

“Rollin’ Coal” Is Pollution Porn For Dudes With Pickup Trucks

By Elizabeth Kulze with Eric Eyges, vocativ (Jun 16, 2014)

In small towns across America, manly men are customizing their jacked-up diesel trucks to intentionally emit giant plumes of toxic smoke every time they rev their engines. They call it “rollin’ coal,” and it’s something they do for fun.

An entire subculture has emerged on the Internet surrounding this soot-spewing pastime—where self-declared rednecks gather on Facebook pages (16,000 collective followers) Tumblr and Instagram (156,714 posts) to share photos and videos of their Dodge Rams and GM Silverados purposefully poisoning the sky. As one of their memes reads: “Roll, roll, rollin’ coal, let the hybrid see. A big black cloud. Exhaust that’s loud. Watch the city boy flee.”

Of course, there are things about diesel lovers and their trucks that the rest of us weren’t meant to understand. Like how the guttural noise of a grumbling engine sounds Continue reading Contact your Local Senator and Delegates to Ban Rolling Coal in Maryland

January 13 is Korean-American Day in Maryland

On Friday, January 13, Maryland is one of several states and the federal government to celebrate Korean American Day. It honors the Korean American community’s contributions in the United States and commemorates the arrival of the first Korean immigrants on January 13, 1903.  In 2005, the United Sates Congress passed resolutions supporting the goals and aspirations of Korean American Day.

republic-of-korea-war-service-medalI feel real kinship with Korean Americans. My father fought in the Korean War 1951-1952 and came to love Korean people and culture. He was thanked by conferral of the Republic of Korea War Service Medal. As the son of my father, I have felt a partnership with Korea. I appreciate Korean-American’s contributions to our community.

http://www.keia.org/page/history-korean-american-day

Maryland road to be named ‘Korean Way’

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) — A section of a Maryland road will be named “Korean Way” in recognition of Koreans’ contribution to economic development and cultural diversity in the U.S. state, the office of Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday. Continue reading January 13 is Korean-American Day in Maryland